Yeah, I get the energy savings with air-drying. And I've always air-dried certain items, too, because like you said, it's hard on fabric.
But right now, the humidity in Porto is 91%. A pair of jeans would smell bad before they finish air drying. Also, my 3 year old loves soup but hasn't really figured out how to hold a spoon without spilling. We do laundry so much because of that kid...
Maybe someone can enlighten me about how to do air dry all of my family's clothes. Clearly I'm missing something because I don't get it. If you lay out your clothes to dry on a rack, you have room for maybe half a load, so is a family just doing laundry every day?